USC and UCLA women's soccer teams go for a record ... crowd, that is

Oct. 20, 2010

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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Forward/midfield Elizabeth Eddy, formerly of Newport Harbort High, leads the USC women's soccer team into "Break the Record Night" on Friday at 7 p.m. against UCLA at the Coliseum. The Trojans are hoping that the crosstown showdown with the No. 20 Bruins attracts a record crowd. JON SOOHOO, USC

Forward/midfield Elizabeth Eddy, formerly of Newport Harbort High, leads the USC women's soccer team into "Break the Record Night" on Friday at 7 p.m. against UCLA at the Coliseum. The Trojans are hoping that the crosstown showdown with the No. 20 Bruins attracts a record crowd. JON SOOHOO, USC

LOS ANGELES – The women from the USC soccer team need 8,205 favors. They need you — and your family and your neighbors and your neighbors' families and your coworkers and friends and anyone you've ever known or not known — to come one and all but preferably all to their game against No. 20 UCLA on Friday night at 7 p.m. at the Coliseum.

The football Trojans, who have a bye this week, won't be using the storied stadium. But the clumpy sod still will be the site of cleated competition, crosstown rivalry, end-to-end drama, history and kicking and screaming and perhaps even — you coming yet? — a national attendance record.

"We're telling everybody, anybody, to be there because we want to break the record," Autumn Altamirano, a freshman midfielder from Beckman High in Tustin said. "Oh, and without USC or UCLA football this weekend, it would be a good opportunity for us to show off women's soccer."

Nobody is shooting for Friday's draw to be the 78,852 the football team is averaging for its home games this season. These soccer players are more realistic, hoping for a little over a tenth of that — 8,204, the NCAA women's soccer regular-season attendance mark set in 2006 when North Carolina visited Texas A&M.

To be exact, USC needs to draw at least 8,205. Admission is $5. Bring a group of 10 or more and get in at $3 each. Be one of the first 2,500 through the turnstiles and get a free commemorative USC soccer scarf.

What more could you want? Snuggies were so last season.

The "Break the Record Night" — yes, this event even has a made-for-the-sports-marketing posters name— also will feature a soccer match to show that athletes don't care only about (attendance) statistics.

Last year's crosstown showdown, also at the Coliseum, drew 7,804, the second-largest non-NCAA tournament crowd on record for a women's soccer match. Could Friday's clash beneath the Coliseum lights bring back that crowd plus 401?

"Everyone I know is coming, even these crazy guys from my (Newport Harbor) high school who say they're going to come shirtless and paint their bodies," said USC's leading scorer Elizabeth Eddy (13 points, 5 goals), a freshman forward/midfielder and fourth-generation Trojan from Newport Beach.

"Oh, and they're soccer fans too. It's going to be a great game, a historic game."

This is one of the best Southern California college women's soccer matchups possible and is certainly deserving of an audience greater than this season's average attendance 560 for six home games at Soni McAlister. There are more people in the line at the DMV at lunchtime.

UC Irvine is ranked No. 15 in the current National Soccer Coaches Association of America Poll headed by Stanford, with UCLA (9-5-1, 2-2-0 Pac-10) at No. 20 and the Trojans (8-4-3, 1-2-1 Pac-10) receiving enough votes to be the unofficial No. 27.

"UCLA-USC at the Coliseum is my dream game," said Eddy, speaking as quickly as she runs and scores, walking and talking after practice Tuesday at McAlister Field on 30th Avenue and Hoover Street. "Like really, it was dream."

She recalled going to a USC football game at age 3 with the Eddy brood. It was sunny, hot enough that she napped beneath the folding seats. She also remembered telling her father, "Daddy, I'm going to play on that field one day."

Eddy, who probably could be seen wearing Trojans apparel and cleats in her ultrasound, played there once already for the USC home opener on Oct. 8 against Stanford.

"It was an incredible feeling to be with all that history and tradition that I've known all my life," Eddy said. "We even used the same locker room as the football team, and to think of all the legends who've been in there was amazing."

She was born into a USC sporting life. Her great-grandfather, Arnold Eddy, was a USC athletic director and his name remains on a plaque inside AD Pat Haden's Heritage Hall office.

As a child, she used to nap beneath the Coliseum seats during games. She started soccer at age 4 with the Glendale Yellow Bumblebees, joined the San Juan Capistrano Blues club circuit in her early teams, and played with her age group on national Olympic development squad, knowing she had committed to play for the Trojans in kindergarten.

Eddy knew of the Trojans sports stars, among them 2008 Olympic gold midfielder Amy Rodriguez (Santa Margarita), from reading the "USC Report" that regularly arrived at the Eddy home.

Rodriguez led the 2007 Trojan darkhorse team into the postseason and scored twice in the NCAA semifinal, upsetting the Bruins who had been making their fifth consecutive Final Four appearance. The Trojans eventually won the program's first NCAA title that season, also a first for a Pac-10 school.

"That was a huge upset for UCLA and big season for USC," said USC junior defender Claire Schloemer (Mater Dei). "They won the championship the year before I got here. We have the talent to do it against if we can have confidence and play as a team, which is hard given all the talented freshmen we have who are just learning."

Nine freshmen, including goalkeeper Shelby Church, are on the Trojans' roster of 24 players. The rookies are still learning the traditions, including the words to the fight song, the pregame pasta meals at the same restaurant, the pre-game circling of the corner flag and cheer of "Trojans!" and the post-practice huddle and shout of "S-C!" after senior midfielder Megan Ohai say "We are ..."

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